Dirty Harry (1971)

1971. San Francisco is under the terrorizing eye of a psychopathic sniper called Scorpio, who claims in one of his written letters to the SFPD, that he will keep killing until his demands are made. Inspector 'Dirty' Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is a no nonsense San Francisco police officer with his own ideas of how to handle police work. Callahan has a reputation of losing partners and is not to happy when he is assigned a new partner for the Scorpio case. It becomes a menacing task for Callahan, as he's been assigned to apprehend the menacing killer at all cost. Hilarity ensues as the case later unravels into a cat-and-mouse game between the two men. One killer with a sinister, distasteful laugh. The other, a killer with a badge.

Trivia: The title role was originally intended for Frank Sinatra who had to pull out because of a hand injury. The script then passed to Paul Newman, who also turned it down but said it would be a perfect vehicle for Clint Eastwood. Audie Murphy was first approached to play the Scorpio Killer, but he died in a plane crash on May 28, 1971 before his decision on the offer could be made. It is widely accepted that this movie was loosely based on the events surrounding the Zodiac Killer who was actively killing people in San Francisco at the time. After Harry has foiled the bank robbery at the beginning of the film, he strides over to the one surviving robber. In doing so, he walks in front of a theatre which is showing Play Misty for Me, which Eastwood directed and starred in. The final scene where Harry throws his badge in the river is a homage to a similar scene from High Noon. Although Harry was supposed to use a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Mag, the actual gun used was the Model 57 in .41 Magnum. All the outdoor scenes were actually filmed in San Francisco except for the bank robbery which Dirty Harry foils, when he first utters his immortal phrase, "Do you feel lucky?" This scene was shot on a set. A police department in the Philippines ordered a print of the movie for use as a training film. In the final scene, Clint Eastwood really did throw his badge into the quarry pond. The SFPD issued another badge with the same number to replace it.

"I know what you're thinking. 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" This is probably one of the most recognized movie quotes of all time and it really shows you Callahan's character. He is blunt, he is cynical, and his methods are definitely unorthodoxed, but he gets the job done and as long as justice prevails the ends justify the means. This is one of the founding films for this type of cop, the hard, rugged loner who always seems to be in trouble with his superiors, but it is also a kind of subgenre of lone lawmen that has been around in Westerns for decades. The problem now, and I think I have mentioned it before, is that I didn't see it when it came out (I was one and Mom and Dad wouldn't take me, dangit!), so I didn't get to see it as a groundbreaking movie. It is a very good cop movie, but I have seen movies like it before. This lowers the mental impact a movie like this should have given me. Sometimes, well most of the time, seeing an older movie like this really impresses me and I marvel on how good they made movies back in the day as it were, but Dirty Harry was just good, not mindblowing good or anything like that. Maybe after reviewing so many movies I am starting to get more cynical, or hopefully, just more discerning and selective as to what a "great" movie is.